Voters ID: Identity as an Indian.

Voters ID: Identity as an Indian.
Suraksha Giri May 29 2014-05-31

      Casting your vote is no longer secret ballot. Around the time of the third general election, I understood the sanctity and strength of being a voter. I was not eligible to vote but looked upon it with awe as though it were like entering a secret club filled with mystic, rituals and rites that made you part of a gang that wielded power. I was familiar with gang mystic and the need for utmost secrecy, being part of one such mega group in my boarding school. We also had a code ' word of honour' which meant you never broke the trust reposed on you. Respecting the secret ballot was the   'word of honour ' of being an adult Indian.
    I idolized the idea of India, the sacrifice and hardship of the freedom fighters who were all true David's bringing down the Goliath. We heard recordings of the speeches of Gandhiji, Panditji, and sang the national anthem at every occasion with proper respect and full throated tenor. 1962 rekindled all the passion, and the Jawan was now the new freedom fighter.
        Ever since I was granted the right to vote, I have used the right as my due responsibility as an Indian, along with paying income tax and all statutory taxes. Finally after five decades of independence, I was furnished a voters Identity card. This is now my prized possession affirming my status as Indian and considered by me as even superior to my Indian passport. This in spite that all the details of address and house number in the voters card have no match with my passport, bank, IT returns, Corporation card or postal address. The particulars in the Voters ID are a fascinating jumble of numbers and like a secret code unlocked, come alive only during elections. Rest of the time, the ID serves as a pass key to enter airports, travel on trains, and book into hotels, buy property, etc etc.
        There is one place in India, my Voters ID card has no jurisdiction. It is at a polling booth during election. While my card enables me to traipse around the country with out any question of my bona fides, the card fails me during an election. I can only use the card at the polling centre that matches the jumble details on the card and no where else. Suddenly my sacred Indian Identity talisman is reduced to the status of my domestic gas ordering agency! What a plummet!!!!
       With drop centres for credit card payment, Net transfer from any bank, money remittance from Kannur to Keoghar, with all these possibilities, why should there be a limitation on where I can use my  Voters ID to cast my vote? Millions of voters are denied their right to discharge their citizen responsibility because the Voters ID allows for a restricted identity, not a national identity.
        Election 2014 was dominated by youth voters. They are going to engage with their lives within the concept of India. They will move, travel, mix and mingle. Will they have the right to cast their vote or be treated as foreigners if they don't rush to their specific polling booth? We register for tickets, shows, education, universities, entrance exams, visas, etc on line. Isn’t it time that we demonstrate the Idea of India as a nation and Indian as right by using the Voters ID to expand the concept and not reduce it to a frog in the well notion?